Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Los Pinos Peak

On Monday, Abby and I left the kiddos with their grandparents and disappeared for a few hours in the Santa Ana Mountains. After some confusion on Long Valley Canyon Road, we located the trailhead and began strolling up the gated Main Divide Road at the pace of a very curious botanist. Upon reaching a grove of Coulter Pines (and their somewhat worrying "widow-maker" pine cones), we left the dirt road and began hiking up the Los Pinos Trail. At the "summit" we realized that the true summit was a half mile further. So we plodded on, eventually reaching a proper rocky summit. There I took note of a somewhat picturesque pyramidal peak and resolved to climb it soon.

Looking up the Main Divide Road toward the Coulter Pine grove (and the junction with Los Pinos Trail).

Widow-makers! They are as big as pineapples.

Abby with the San Gorgonio massif in the background.

The view from the summit toward the ocean . . . and that pyramidal peak.